Japan increasing and arming her navy on huge scale according to the Dutch newspaper Sumatra courant dated 8 June 1898

An item wondered what the intentions of Japan were, which country was till increasing her navy spending millions and millions. Another question was why Japan needed so urgently the 900 torpedoes she ordered from the torpedo plant at Fiume, Hungary [nowadays Rijeka, Croatia]. England was at that moment building 3 battleships each of more as 15.000 tons, 3-10.000 tons 1st class armoured cruisers and 8-316 tons destroyers with a speed of 31 miles, France was building 1-9.450 tons armoured cruiser 1st class and 8-4.227 tons 2nd class armoured cruisers, Germany was building 1-9.800 ton armoured 1st class cruiser and the USA 2-5.000 ton armoured cruisers 2nd class.